Black Friday 2009

It's Black Friday...and its the first time in years that I haven't gone out to the stores.  I must say that, while I don't miss the crowds and craziness (and certainly the earliness) I do miss the activity, the spontaneous finding of deals, and the feeling that I've accomplished the majority of my Christmas shopping.  I will say that, even though I didn't go out, I still managed to do Black Friday the Amazon.com way and I've bought more of my Christmas gifts today than I usually do when I go out to the stores.  They had some really awesome deals today so I took advantage to get perfect gifts for the family.  I still have five gifts to buy, one for my uncle, one for my mom's boyfriend, one for a teacher at school (for secret santa), one for Bond, and one for J.P.  Its kinda funny how we get at Christmastime.  Most months we don't give a thought at all for buying things for loved ones or even what they might need (except maybe at birthdays) but suddenly at year's end we start scrambling around to try and find out what will make the perfect holiday gift.  Just so you know, I'm not going to go on a tirade about how we don't care about each other consistently enough throughout the year or that we are much to material a society.  I'd much rather speak positively about how we are very consistent about how much trouble we (or at least I) go through each year to find something to make our family and friends' faces take on that marvelous look of surprise, joy and gratitude.  Frankly, it just feels good to make someone's day.  We wouldn't spend so much money, give so much thought, and generate so much stress over it if we didn't care.  Sure sure, I know someone will say that you don't need a present to show someone that you care, but that's really irrelevant if someone wants to give the gift.  None of us is obligated by law (or guilt) to buy anyone anything...we do it because we want to...because giving things is a good a way as any to express love to someone.

That being said, I still have to figure out what the perfect gift will be for those five remaining people.  4 of them have a $20 limit...so it can't be anything huge.  That's fine with me.  I'd rather give small, sensible gifts than huge ones.  And you won't see me brainstorming my gift ideas on here simply because I know Bond reads this...J.P. might too.  If there's anything I hate above all things at Christmas, its giving away the surprise.  Bond is gonna be easy to buy for I think...its J.P. who's gonna be the pain.  He doesn't like clutter, he doesn't do DVDs for the most part, he doesn't need kitchen stuff, and he is very likely to not like anything I pick out.  I'm thinking of just getting him a gift card honestly....but that's always a last resort.  I already have my idea for Uncle Mike, and I think its a pretty decent one.  The secret santa gift will probably be something generic.  Those usually are.  Mom's boyfriend always gets something golf related.

So, how many of you watch the James Bond marathons that happen every Thanksgiving and Christmas?  I know we do.  We're the biggest bunch of closet Bond fans in the nation I think.  I came to it late in life...never liked Bond much before I was in college...but now I love the corny, campy, formulaic fantasticness of them.  We've been watching Diamonds are Forever for the last...gee it seems like 6 hours...and its always been an odd adventure for the intrepid spy.  For starters, its Sean Connery's last Broccoli Bond film (after being gone for the less liked On her Majesty's Secret Service) and it features yet another actor playing Blofeld for the first and last time at the same time...this time Charles 'That guy has no fucking neck' Gray.  It also features a convoluted plot involving diamond smuggling and a strange space lazer...which is nothing like the novel it is supposedly based on (I mean, the diamond smuggling is there in the book as are Mr. Kidd and Mr. Went...but the space plot and Blofeld most definitely were not in the book).  However, the Las Vegas setting and the vivacious Jill St. John as Tiffany Case (gotta love those Bond girl names) make the film a helluva lot of fun to watch.  Plus, you get to see Charles Gray in drag!  Enjoy the trailer for it below...I'm glad they don't make 'em like this anymore.

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